


In the Right Way

by Val Mora (valmora)



Category: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: Gen, any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 01:06:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2794166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valmora/pseuds/Val%20Mora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What I need," Angelica says, putting down the accordion, "is an oscilloscope."</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Right Way

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aeriel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeriel/gifts).



> The title is, of course, from the book; the trope-summarizing tag is from [Girl Genius](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081205).

"What I need," Angelica says, putting down the accordion, "is an oscilloscope."

"Why?" Tonino looks up from his note-taking in the corner of the room, cheek smudged with ink from where he rubbed his nose.

"I can't tell if I'm in tune, can I?" Angelica scrubs at her hair, then tries to pat it back into place. "It's no good changing one note if I don't know if the others are right, and it's stupid to keep you sitting here checking for me. Besides, I have a theory that _intent_ matters when humans do magic so I want a machine doing the music too."

"My dad got turned into a machine once. During the duel with your dad. But he did magic then, too."

"But look, see, he was still _your dad_. Can a machine-machine do magic?" Angelica insists.

" _Machine-machine_? What made him not a machine?"

Angelica throws up her hands. "Stop being so philosophical! All I want is to know the difference between A and A-flat!"

"One's a black key."

Angelica glares at him. 

"It's also slightly lower." 

"I'm going to turn you into a fish," Angelica says.

"You did that last week."

 

The problem with magic is that it's complicated and the rules aren't totally understood. Obviously pitch matters – otherwise her spells would go off without a hitch, even if she weren't tone-deaf – or at least the intervals matter. She can have Tonino sing a shoe-tying spell in different keys and it still works.

But she _remembers_ singing the _Angel of Caprona_ with everyone else, and it still worked, even though it would be impossible for her to have been in tune. 

When she asked Elizabeth Montana a couple of years ago ("Aunt Elizabeth" is still too strange, even though it's been so long that Rosa and Marco have three children old enough to be doing magic themselves), she shrugged and said "But that's from an angel, isn't it?" Which was really not a good answer, because rules should be consistent, like math.

Tonino shrugs about it too, which is always frustrating and makes Angelica extremely cross. It's not his fault he would prefer if there weren't really any magic at all. Magic has just made his life exciting and hard, and he prefers to be left alone to read fantasy novels and talk to cats.

Angelica agrees about the cats. There are cats in Chrestomanci castle, even if they aren't as clever as Pasquale and Valentina, the boss-cats of Casas Petrocchi and Montana, respectively. She wasn't allowed to bring Pasquale with her, naturally, and Valentina outright refused, so she was stuck with Miss Tiddles, who is very small, and - while very thoughtful and sweet -not terribly insightful about Angelica's magical problems.

There's a knock on the door. It's a very _Tonino_ sort of knock.

"Don't you dare," she says in Italian.

"I'm not daring anything!"

"You're trying to be soothing, I know you are, I can hear it."

"I was going to say that the post came and there's a letter for you from Renata, actually." 

She opens the door. He's grinning in his small, shy, boyish sort of way, which English girls keep sighing over. They also sigh over his Italian accent, which is, by the way, fake.

She, meanwhile, still sometimes struggles with English, and is quietly annoyed with him even more for his gentle understanding.

The envelope crinkles in her hand. "Thank you," she says too-sweetly, leaving the door open because the last time she shut it in his face she almost broke his nose.

Her letter opener is cursed, but Tonino thoughtfully sings it back asleep before it can start wailing when she picks it up. It's the same song he uses to soothe Chicca Montana-Petrocchi back to sleep when Rosa and Marco need a break.

"You should really replace that," he says.

"I'm not bothered by the noise."

"It's a minor – never mind." He sighs and looks – not peers, _looks_ ; he's really too tall – over her shoulder as she reads the letter. The news is nothing remarkable; more about Paolo's clumsy attempts to court Giulia Orsatti. She's the youngest Doctor of Magic at the University in Caprona, and of course the most beautiful, and very definitely the sort to want Paolo to take her name at marriage, Casa Montana be damned. Sensibly, she seems more interested in the House's spell-books than in Paolo himself, and has told him so several times. He's now attempting to win her over with gentleness, rather than grand gestures, and is having better luck, though Renata still amuses herself with his antics.

Renata asks, too, about Angelica's research, and if there's any way the family can help. When Angelica will come home to visit next ( _You can bring Tonino too, I suppose; Chicca will want to see him and ride on his shoulders again_ ). Whether she is eating enough. All the things Renata only says because it's a letter and they never see each other any more except at Christmas, and sometimes Easter.

At the end, there are some inky paw-prints from Pasquale, and she runs her fingers over them, wishing that Pasquale could write, too.

"I miss Valentina," Tonino agrees, giving her a gentle hug and then letting go.

"We should make an oscilloscope. Do you think Chrestomanci will give us money for the vaccum tubes?"

"Probably not." 

She sighs. "I just need a machine that plays music that I can change, like a music box, or –" She stiffens. "Isn't there a player piano in the second floor receiving room?"

"So you can make rolls that are played by a machine?" He smiles at her again, teeth showing. He still has ink on his cheek from when his pen dripped this morning while taking notes. 

"Yes!" She starts gathering her things. "I'm going to go ask Chrestomanci if we can get some blank rolls and a punching machine. You come with." She grabs his elbow to tow him along. After all, she'll need someone to help tune the piano.


End file.
